Interview: Daily Kos Wants Governor Rick Snyder Recalled. The Effort Is Poised To Change The Face of U.S. Politics.

by Chris Savage

Although many people have never heard of Daily Kos or think of it as simply “that liberal blog,” it has become the model for online community political blogging. Founded in 2002 by Markos “Kos” Moulitsas, according to the site’s About page, it now gets around 2 million unique visitors per month and has over 300,000 registered users. In addition to paid staff who write for the main page, anyone can sign up for a free account and write pieces, called “diaries,” for the website.

Diaries receiving the most “Recommends” by readers end up on the Recommended List where they can receive as many 2,000 comments and be seen by thousands of visitors (full disclosure: I am a regular diarist at Daily Kos and was voted “Diarist of the Year” in 2010.) [A2P notes: This is a media model that incorporates aggregation of content generated by unpaid contributors. In April 2011, Jonathan Tasini, a journalist and union organizer, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Tasini is seeking class-action status for his $105 million dollar lawsuit against the Huffington Post on behalf of some 9,000 unpaid bloggers whose work was used to generate millions in advertising revenues for HuffPost owners.]

Thanks to the large volume of traffic on the site, Daily Kos relies on advertising revenue, but pinning down annual revenue figures for the privately held company is difficult. In a 2006 interview with the New York Times, founder Markos Moulitsas told the paper he earned between $70,000-$80,000 per year.  In addition to this, in recent years Daily Kos has begun to focus on supporting candidates and ballot initiatives, helping to raise money and, more recently their organizational skills. In late May, I wrote that Daily Kos was getting on board the effort to recall Governor Rick Snyder. As A2Politico pointed out earlier this week, this was breaking news that went unreported by the major news outlets in Michigan for well over a month. The entrance of Daily Kos into this effort was significant because, until that time, there were no other organizations, including unions, that had stepped up to offer assistance in terms of money, resources and organizational help.

I caught up with Chris Bowers, Campaign Director at Daily Kos to ask him about their involvement in the recall effort. Bowers has worked for the AFL-CIO and is former editor at the website MyDD.com. He has consulted on campaigns for a wide variety of groups including MoveOn, Media Matters, SEIU, the PCCC, and the New Organizing Institute.

A2Politico: Chris, thanks for agreeing to the interview. What is your title at Daily Kos and what does your job entail?

Chris Bowers: I am the Daily Kos Campaign Director. I develop and execute our activist campaigns (fundraising, petition drives, attending events, contacting Congress, and more). I view my job as trying to make the activism the community is already engaged in more effective.

A2Politico: Why did Daily Kos decide to get involved with the recall effort targeting Michigan Governor Rick Snyder?

Chris Bowers: When we saw the energy on the blog getting behind the energy on the ground, we could see something important was happening. There were a couple of days in a row where Michigan issues were our most recommended diary on Daily Kos. People were clearly getting behind the recall movement in response to the emergency financial manager law and the assault on democracy that it entails. Once we heard that over 1,000 local activists had already signed up on their own, and that there was a real effort behind it, that was enough for us.

Whenever local activists are stepping up to self-organize in ways that take the fight to Republicans and energize our community, that will draw our attention.

A2Politico: When did Daily Kos begin their effort and what did that effort involve?

Chris Bowers: We started getting involved about a week before the petition gathering began. Our first efforts were to make sure to clear any legal hurdles, and then to raise some money to run online ads to sign up thousands of volunteers in Michigan.

A2Politico: I understand you have hired Field Works to help with organizing the petition drive. What will their involvement entail?

Chris Bowers: The local organizers had requested some help putting together a more professional operation. So, we have brought on field consultants to help better coordinate the 4,000 volunteers who have signed up.

A2Politico: What will happen if too few signatures are gathered by the August deadline? Will a new petition drive be started? If so, how will you avoid confusing people who have already signed a petition and are wary about signing a second one?

Chris Bowers: What happens after this petition drive is up to the local volunteers who started the effort. If we don’t have enough signatures, refiling is definitely an option, because we will have a much stronger organization in place at that time. Working to create local activists groups would be another idea. Further, there should be some ballot initiatives and state legislature recalls to get involved in, too. But whatever happens, it will be decided only through a conversation with the amazing activists who started this.

A2Politico: How much money has Daily Kos raised to help with the recall effort? Is money still being raised? Is it all from donations or is Daily Kos providing some of their own funds?

Chris Bowers: We have raised over $20,000, and will likely raise more in the future. It all comes from donations from the community.

A2Politico: What has the response been from the Committee to Recall Rick Snyder? Has there been any problem with an outside group coming in, any hurt feelings?

Chris Bowers: The only responses I have received have been very positive. They want outside groups to come in and help.

A2Politico: If enough signatures are gathered, will Daily Kos stay involved for the campaign to make sure the recall is successful at the ballot box?

Chris Bowers: Oh yes.

A2Politico: Is Daily Kos involved in any of the other recalls in Michigan?

Chris Bowers: We are working on it. Even though we haven’t done much yet, the answer is yes.

A2Politico: Last question. How many other state-level initiatives are Daily Kos working on similar to this?

Chris Bowers: We’ve done work in California, Wisconsin and Ohio in addition to Michigan.

I followed up with the Committee to Recall Rick Snyder (FireRickSnyder.org) to see how the recall effort was going (A2P Notes: You can read an interview A2Politico did with the organizing committee here) and how the involvement of Daily Kos had impacted their efforts. When A2Politico interviewed them in May, no major groups had announced their support of the recall.

A2Politico: How did the involvement of Daily Kos with the Snyder recall effort come about?

FireRickSnyder.org: Chris Bowers, campaign director for Daily Kos contacted us and very graciously offered ideas on how we could strengthen our volunteer base. He also used Daily Kos’ fundraising prowess and quickly began recruiting on our behalf.

A2Politico: What has changed since Daily Kos has gotten involved? What is their role? In what tangible ways have they helped?

FireRickSnyder.org: Daily Kos has been instrumental and invaluable in garnering publicity for our campaign as well as new volunteers. They offered their expertise and platform to that end. On the other side of the scale, Daily Kos hired Field Works, one of the best organizational firms around, to help us iron out some of the inevitable wrinkles in our structure and strategy. Together, we believe that we have what it takes to make this campaign a success.

A2Politico: How confident are you that enough signatures will be gathered by the August deadline?

FireRickSnyder.org: Very confident. As you know, our first deadline is August 5th and we must file by then to get on the November 2011 ballot. We will evaluate as we approach August 5th the option of continuing to collect signatures and file them on August 19th for the next election cycle in 2012. August 19th is the 90th day since the start of signature collection — the maximum time allowed under Michigan recall laws.

A2Politico: If enough signatures are not gathered, what next?

FireRickSnyder.org: In that case we do have strong organizational structures in place that will allow us to regroup and hit the road running, this time with a large contact list, and the names and addresses of hundreds of thousands of Michigan voters who want to see this recall succeed, one way or another.

We are also involved in other efforts to minimize the power of this governor. We are actively seeking the recall of some of the most vulnerable of the State Senators and Representatives who are the most egregious violators of the public trust. This will limit the ability of the Governor to carry out his unconstitutional agenda.

Breaking the super-majority in the senate and undermining the apparent power of the current House leadership will also have the effect of driving a wedge between the traditional Republicans and the extremists who have controlled the agenda so far in this session.

What we will not do is go quietly into the sunset.

A2Politico: Has everyone in your organization been receptive to an outside group coming in to work on the recall with you?

FireRickSnyder.org: Yes. The benefits are crystal clear and by far outweigh any possible negative consequences. Even more, we know that we do not have the resources or skill set to do the entire job on our own.

A2Politico: The Michigan Education Association (the teachers union) came on board (A2P Notes: A2Politico broke that story here). Are you frustrated that they waited so long and do you anticipate other unions joining with the recall effort?

FireRickSnyder.org: Some of the MEA’s members have been involved from the beginning. They are more disappointed in the MEA’s procrastination than we are. We are hoping that other unions will join us in this fight, but so far there haven’t been any new partnerships.

There is just a month left in the petition drive to recall Rick Snyder and most would agree that the odds are stacked against it being successful. However, what nobody counted on, including Michigan political commentator Jack Lessenberry, is that major groups like Daily Kos or the MEA would lend their support. The energy of the thousands of recall volunteers coupled with the organizational resources of these two groups may help to tip the scale in their favor. Even if they are not ultimately successful with the recall of Rick Snyder, if they can turn the political tide in the state House or Senate, they still will have taken a dramatic step toward limiting the governor’s Republican agenda.

For more of Chris Savage’s writing, visit Eclectablog.